Historical Traveler Reviews Tulip Resort Marsa Alam

Bad Hotel, Great Dive Center...is the trade off worth it?

from Wise_Turtle

I'm a diver and have visited the Red Sea 22 times. I've stayed with many resorts and hotels and I decided to give the Tulip Inn a try based on recommendations from my travel agent and the reviews from this website! Now I'm here to set the record straight. Sadly, my stay at the Tulip ranks as the worst I've ever experienced. I have never before been so dismissively and disrespectfully treated by hotel staff before at the Red Sea. I found myself having to beg for bar and restaurant service while putting up with one inappropriate question after another; ie: "are you married?" and "where is your husband?" The staff were completely lacking in proper 5 Star hotel management training and etiquette. Add to this, the repetitive and really bad food, (shocking, as I understand that this is an Italian owned hotel!) the hot water that only worked twice during my stay and the hard matresses and pillows and you get a 3 star experience in a 4 star (barely) environment . The Positives: the Dive Center, the swimming pools, the hotel's position on the water and the jetty. But beware, this hotel does not offer 5 star service or amenities, nor is it good value for the money. My advice: if you dive and food and hot showers aren't important to you, go for it. The dive center is great. If you are travelling with family that do not dive and you presumably want to remain married, look elsewhere. As for me, The Tulip Inn won't be benefiting from my repeat business.

Bad food, bad staff attitude towards women!

from MissCinesina

On the positive side, the resort is small and compact making it easy to navigate. The pools are beautiful but not heated and the three women in the animation staff excellent (three Russian and one Tunisian ) the men in the animation staff however were not present and basically unavailable. A disappointment.

The rooms are basic but clean, however the mattresses as hard as rocks as were the pillows. The towels are small and ragged. The biggest disappointment by far was the food: the salad bar is mostly out of a can. The fish smelly and unedible, and always white rice and stew. Nothing new, nothing innovative, just terrible, and the same day after day, night after night. I've stayed in resorts everywhere along the Red Sea and this is the first time that I came back having lost weight, not gained! Very bad.

We traveled in a group of 4 women, and the restaurant and bar staff treated us disrespectfully - as if we were non existant.

We had to really work at getting served! These people need to be taught that they can't treat western women the way they treat their own. I would not go back to this resort, would not recommend it, and think it is more a 3.5 star than the 5 star it is billed as.

All Italiano..... its a Brit free zone

from mikewashbrook

Hotel good, clean well presented and staff try hard.

One big downer, the whole hotel is full if Italians! We were the only Brit family in the resort which is fine if you dont want to talk to anyone. Most of staff were tuned into Italian also, but that said it was a good holiday and hotel was above average by Egyptian standards.

Also, dont book anything else but ''all inclusive'' the hotel is designed for this and without the ability to upgarde the hotel has limited flexibility for other mealplans etc.

Lastly, dive centre is limited. No real volume of numbers so if you are trying to get to Elphinstone daily, forget it!

Great Place

Ok I would first like to say that the flights with Astraeus were awful on both occasions, they had no pillows or blankets.

Moving on to the hotel it is more a five star hotel, that is compared to some of the 'four stars' i've stayed in around the world.

Sorry about the rant! We found the Tulip had excellent staff (loved the animation team!), A mon avis the cleanliness, food and standard of English was also 5 star.

In a nutshell, the tulip is the ideal place to go to relax and not do anything accept sunbathe and dive and if there's time, sunbathe a little more. I cannot stress enough how ever Marsa Alam really is a 'hotel holiday'; The nearest town is 2 hrs away by car! The gym is great also, it's got dumbbells, lat pull down etc.

Bon Voyage!

Tulip Resort

from cls_uk

Went on a Thomas Cook package holiday with the intention of going diving. The Tulip wasn't listed in their briochure so we had little information before we left the uK. Hotel is great, somewhere around 4 star, maybe more. Rooms are well furnished & clean and all have balconies. Three great pools (not heated but fine in April) with swim-up bar in one. Apparently there were tennis courts and a small gym, sauna etc but that all seemed like hard-work so I can't comment on these facilities. Food at the hotel is great with a good choice each day - we went all inclusive. The drinks at the bar were limited to local drinks but the beer, wine and gin were all fine for me!

The hotel is isolated - its not in a town or village so you have no options for food or bars outside of the hotel. This was fine for us as the holiday was mainly about diving - if I want to see Egypt, then I wouldn't be going on a package holiday anyway. If you want lively evenings then this probably isn't the place for you, try Naama Bay or Dahab.

The dive centre is Italian-run and organised 4 days boat diving for us. The dive conditions were great and the operation is well run with good equipment and safety of divers and surroundings taken seriously. Only disappointment is that it is 2 dives per day rather than 3 in order that guests get back to the hotel for lunch. The coral was in excellent condition and the sea-life very varied (turtle, dolphins as well as the more common Red Sea sightings). Visibility was good on all dives and the current didn't really affect any of them, all the diving felt pretty easy (and I'm not a confident diver!).

Overall, lovely hotel with great food and decent beach. Good location for diving and getting away from it all.

TripAdvisor Reviews Tulip Resort Marsa Alam

Excellent

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